諦観からの軌跡 : The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon を中心に

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What works particularly well in The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon by Fielding is that diseases gather as the Journal unfolds. As far as one can determine from the Journal, it may be quite uncertain whether the author on a voyage was free or not from resignation to the decree of destiny and predestination. It may be suggested, however, according to the Author's Introduction, that as a result of facing impending death, the author was anxious about his own posthumous affairs, not only making a plan to put an immediate end to the violators of the public peace in London but also entrusting his post as the Justice of the Peace at Westminster to his half brother John. During the sailing for Lisbon, there are some glimpses of health of the author, although he must undergo trochar-tappings on account of his dropsy. His invincible feeling may be due to his ambitious attitude. The most remarkable forces of seemingly recovering his health are shown in the appetite of the author as a man who takes pleasure in eating even when sailing through rough seas. Wherever his ship, the Queen of Portugal, casts anchor, the author is anxious to hunt for foodstuffs such as poultry, fish and fresh vegetables, in addition to noted products of the area, though he has much difficulty in moving about due to his disease; his bloated body is lifted on to the ship with pulleys. It is well known that passengers at that time had to prepare for their special food to lay in a supply of ship-food as an extra charge in addition to the normal fare, if they wished to be warmly welcomed by the crew members. As Author's Preface in the Journal suggests, there may be no author or writer but Fielding who makes a declaration of his own ambition to be a travel writer in spite of facing imminent death. By criticizing the most celebrated travel books as those of fussy accuracy or fabrication, Fielding signifies his intention of conveying “instruction in the vehicle of entertainment," a book of travels, in opposition to Samuel Richardson. In defense of his own theory, Fielding mocks the tendency of travel writers to lapse into the fantastic or the mundane, to which even the Odyssey and the Aeneid belong as works of travel. Judged from the navigation of his ship from the beginning, there are a series of mishaps and frustrations the author will have to confront; he needs a surgeon to tap him. Alternating calm and heavy seas compound his affliction, leaving Fielding to endure pitiful adventures as if they are trials during the pilgrimage to Lisbon by a wind-bound ship. As for religious elements, Christian propagation into the Isle of Wight, Sunday service held there, and how Captain Vail is superstitions and passionately religious are alluded in the Journal to illustrate how Christian religion is dominant in rural areas or is believed blindly, Fielding introduces the islanders and the captain. In the face of death or mortality illustrated by the case of a cat, washed overboard and miraculously rescued, but suffocated to death under a feather-bed in the cabin, it seems reasonable to assume that Fielding is eager to live as long as possible with his Christian beliefs as a latitudinarian. What puzzles the reader is to find that the Journal ends with some words of Horace, relating that Fielding at last lands in Portugal after his troublesome six-week voyage, and enjoys a good supper at a nameless inn in the western suburbs of Old Lisbon. It is a mystery how Fielding stayed there for two months after his landing and before his death, and why he left no journal or diary to be a sequel to the Journey. It is well known that Fielding sent three letters from Lisbon during his stay, but two were lost and only one long letter to brother John was left. The evidence of the letter which is our last view of Fielding, that is, costs of living, illnesses among the family, new acquaintances, and so on, in so far as it can be used, support the presumption that Fielding's view on the Journey had been fixed long before his death, for he wished to have completed the work without showing ugliness of old age before dying.
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諦観からの軌跡 : The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon を中心に

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